


Warm, Real & Bright

by vanify



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Banter, Canon Compliant, Chirithy is Pascal but is still a cat, Fluff, Flynn!Vanitas, Kairi is the old Mother Gothel, M/M, NamiXi if you squint, Naminé is the younger version, Post-Canon, Rapunzel!Ventus, Realization of feelings because they’re both stupid, SoRiku if you squint harder, Sora and Roxas are Vanitas’s co-thieves, Tangled AU, Tangled With A Twist, The other characters aren’t really important, They both still like to bicker with each other, VANVEN TANGLED AU, Ventus has a potty mouth, Ventus is freaked out, Yes he’s worse than Vanitas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25918615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanify/pseuds/vanify
Summary: Apparently, the whole process of opening Kingdom Hearts, saving the universe and bringing Sora back to the realm of Light had its downsides.For example: the World Order gets shifted up and Ventus finds himself in Rapunzel’s hidden tower in the Kingdom of Corona. Now he needed to complete Rapunzel’s story to return things back to normal; simple enough. Only problem is his Flynn Rider turned out to be Vanitas. (And he’s an unbearable asshole.)
Relationships: Vanitas & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

It was a typical morning in the location of Master Yen Sid’s tower. The warm, yet subtle light of the sunrise peeping through the tall forest trees around the structure gave off a feeling of serenity—paired with the birds chirping here and there. Absolutely nothing can compare to the daybreak view the Tower of Mystery provided.

At the tower’s main entrance were two keyblade wielders who slept over the night before. The teenagers were walking together side-by-side at a leisurely pace; with the shorter boy attempting to engage in a short, early morning conversation with the other.

“Pipe it down, idiot.”

Ah yes, of course that had to be the first thing Vanitas says to Ventus this morning. The blond only sticks his tongue out childishly. “Seriously? Not even a single _‘Don’t mess this up.’_ like the usual when we go on missions together?”

Vanitas scoffs at him, putting his hands behind his head. “I couldn’t care any less by this point. One way or another you always end up causing trouble for me anyway.”

“That’s rich coming from you, Mr. Creature of Darkness,” Ventus rolls his eyes. “At least I’m not the one who suddenly pukes out Unversed whenever we make eye contact with a princess. What is up with that?”

His other half scowls at him, despite knowing full and well that Ventus would find one of his Floods scarier than the most menacing glare that he could muster. “Oh really? Well, I’m not the one who practically _begs_ Aqua and Terra to keep the Unversed like little cats the second we take our first step back home.”

Much to his embarrassment, Ventus didn’t really have a retort to that. He groans when he feels his little Chirithy, who was _supposedly_ sleeping on top of his head, stifle a chuckle.

“Ven, Vanitas! Good to see you two!” A voice laced with a distinct chirpiness so early in the morning called to them, and they quit glaring at each other to look at none other than Sora; with the Gummi Ship seemingly ready to take off behind him.

Instantly, Ventus beams back at him. “Sora! Good morning! How are you? Are you okay?” The blond bombarded him with questions of concern as he ran up to him. The raven-haired boy who trailed after merely muttered a monotonous _“Morning, brother.”_ and a nod. 

“I’m fine! Everyone’s doing a good job taking care of me, if I do say so myself.” Says Sora, ever the cheerful guy. Though the bags on his eyes and paleness still didn’t sit well with either Ventus or Vanitas, they acknowledged the boy’s statement. It’s only been a few months since Sora was brought back to their realm, after all. Who knows what the boy has been through?

“That’s good to hear,” Ventus grins. “Thank you for lending us the Gummi Ship, by the way!”

“It’s cool! You two got dibs on it for today.” Sora winks at them, giving the two a thumbs-up gesture. “Stay safe on your mission! I’m gonna go back and rest before Riku wakes up and scolds me for getting out of bed…”

“Rest well. You take care too.” Vanitas says, though quite hesitantly. Still, Sora takes his statement with his signature award-winning smile. 

They bid their goodbyes, and before they knew it, Sora was already off on his way back inside Yen Sid’s tower. It was the place the guardians deemed to be the safest spot to keep Sora for a while, and he’s resting the past few weeks away.

“Alright Vani, let’s go!” Ventus chimes, determination brimming in his eyes. “Ooh, I can’t wait to try driving the Gummi Ship!”

“Don’t call me that,” Vanitas lightly smacked him on his arm as they entered the ship. “Also, who the heck said you’re driving?”

It was stupid of Ventus to think this would be settled without competition, and so he sighs in an exaggerated manner. “You’re _killing_ me. What makes you think I’d let you drive a ship that doesn’t even belong to us when you can’t even crack open an egg? Little Chef told me about last Thursday, don’t bother lying about that!” 

“What the hell does last Thursday have anything to do with this?!” The taller boy huffs, a subtle red tint of embarrassment on his cheeks. “Oh, and let _me_? You’re not in charge here, in case you weren’t aware.” 

A yawn escapes Vanitas’s mouth almost immediately after that last sentence, breaking the facade of his snarky image. His Light snorts at him. “Alright, how ‘bout I drive on the way there and you drive when we get back home? You can barely keep your eyes open and I’d really rather not crash into an asteroid at five in the morning.”

Scoffing for what feels like the nth time, Vanitas takes the Chirithy from the mop of blond hair and walks past Ventus to make himself comfortable on the passenger’s seat. “Wake me up before we land.” Was the last sentence he said, before cuddling up with the sleeping Chirithy and closing his eyes himself.

Ventus grins stupidly at the sight. He hums as a yes, though not sure if his other half even heard that since Vanitas seemed to be slumbering already. Walking to the direction of the driver’s seat, Ventus takes off his jacket and cracks his knuckles. And so they set off for the Kingdom of Corona, with the blond happily fantasizing about making flower crowns with Rapunzel and his partner later.

-

“Vanitas.” Ventus calls out.

“Hey, wake up.” His other half still doesn’t budge.

The blond lightly taps on the sleeping boy’s nose. “Vani, come on. We’re here.”

It took about ten _Vani_ ’s, five shaking attempts, and two light slaps on the cheeks before Ventus decided to give up with a heavy sigh. He reaches his hand out, summoning Wayward Wind. “I didn’t want it to come to this, my dearest Vanitas,” Says Ventus in the most dramatic fashion that he could muster. “But this is getting quite annoying.”

Chirithy, who was already awake and standing on the floor next to Ventus, ran up to the boy’s leg to pull on his pants in an attempt to stop him. However, it was too late.

Ventus shouts, and Chirithy closes its eyes in preparation for the incoming string of profanity from the creature of darkness—but it never arrives. Instead of performing any magic or slashing him across the face, Ventus lightly bonks Vanitas’s head over with his keyblade. Just the right amount of force to wake him up but not hurt him _too_ much. He was starting to think that Vanitas’s skull was just as strong as the black mask he used to wear a few years ago.

“Boop.” The boy says for added effect as he swiftly hit Vanitas awake.

“What the hell, idiot?” Vanitas groans, holding the spot that was stinging on his head as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his other hand.

A pair of green eyes look at him with an unimpressed gaze. “Fucking finally. I can’t believe I had to use a _keyblade_ to wake you up.”

Vanitas stares at his partner as if he grew two heads. “Maybe just shake me awake like what a normal person would do?” He suggests, though sarcastically. “Idiot.”

“I _did_ but you sleep like the dead!” Ventus whines. “Also, quit calling me an idiot!”

“Hm, you’re right. _Airhead_ suits you way better.” Concludes the other, crossing his arms against his chest with a playful smirk dancing on his dry lips. “Get it? Because wind magic’s your specialty and you’re utterly stupid—”

“Screw you, Vani! Seriously!”

_RIIIING!_

“Ah,” Says Vanitas, gaze tearing away from Ventus to search for the device ringing in one of the pockets of his pants. “That coming from you?”

With the heat of the argument gone in a flash, Ventus began to search for his Gummi Phone too. He eventually finds it inside a pocket of the jacket he took off earlier, and cringes at the sight of Aqua’s picture on the screen. “You don’t think she knows our bickering is getting in the way of our missions again, don’t you?”

Golden eyes stared at him with amusement. “Hm, ‘dunno. Better answer that now before you miss the call and she freaks out on you, though.”

Realizing that he was right, Ventus reluctantly pressed the phone button and answered the call.

“Ven!”

“Hey, Aqua!” The blond grins awkwardly at the screen.

“Where are you right now? Is Vanitas there with you?”

Ventus angled the phone so Vanitas can be seen on the screen too. “Right here, Master. We’re inside the Gummi Ship in front of Corona.” The taller boy says with a shit-eating grin, emphasizing on the _'Master'_ nickname for the sake of irritating the blue-haired woman.

Aqua only sighed upon hearing that and didn’t bother pointing out the nickname like how she would normally do. Perhaps they weren’t the only ones who had no energy to deal with crap at 5 AM in the morning. “Right. Master Yen Sid wanted me to tell you that there’s currently something wrong going on with the worlds—so stay safe, you two.”

“What do you mean?” Ventus asks, a frown making its way onto his face. “Are the worlds still being threatened by darkness?”

“I’m currently at King Mickey’s castle and we’re still trying to figure out exactly what’s going on, but I could give you an example,” The Keyblade Master goes on, “Yesterday, Naminé and Xion went to the Dwarf Woodlands to clear it from wandering Heartless.”

“And?”

“When they entered the world, Xion said that she was suddenly wearing Snow White’s dress; with Naminé following that statement saying she was wearing a prince outfit. You can guess what happened.”

The two boys looked at each other, baffled. “So...they’re in Snow White’s story? They had to go through the same events written in Snow White’s fate?” Vanitas questions. This was starting to give him a headache; he realized he should have taken up Ventus’s offer for breakfast back at the tower.

“Precisely.”

“Hold on...does that explain why Naminé and Xion are suddenly all blushy around each other? I mean, if Xion was Snow White and Naminé was the prince, then…” Ventus trails off of his own words.

Aqua giggles. “Perhaps so. Things turned into normal after they completed the story, though. So if in any case one of you ends up being Rapunzel, don’t panic. You know what to do. Remember my words: complete the story no matter what.”

The former Seeker squints his eyes. “Well, that’s a disturbing mental image.” Vanitas murmurs, picturing Ventus and himself wearing Rapunzel’s outfit.

“Thanks for telling us, Aqua! We’ll be careful.” 

“Right. See you two when you get back.”

Not even a second after, the screen of Ventus’s Gummi Phone was no longer displaying Aqua’s photo and was back on the homescreen. He switched it off and placed the phone back inside his jacket pocket. “That went well. At least it wasn’t about our arguing.”

“Do we land now? I wanna stop by Twilight Town after this so let’s make this quick.” Vanitas states, raising an eyebrow at Ventus.

“Ah...yeah, sure.”

“What’s up with you, airhead?”

“...Vani, I don’t know how to land this thing.”

Vanitas blinks once. Twice. Three times. “Unbelievable. You really are an airhead.”

“Just help me, will you?!” Embarrassment fills Ventus’s face with a pinkish color, and the irritation reflected into his eyes clear as day despite the green contact lenses he was wearing.

“Move aside, airhead. I’ll land the ship.” 

For some reason, the pride and assurance evident in Vanitas’s voice didn’t settle well with the Pure Light. “Okay.” 

-

As it turned out, it was most certainly _not_ okay.

The pair landed in the world with the both of them screaming their lungs out, though Ventus suspected that his was more out of fear as opposed to Vanitas who treated the _crashing_ Gummi Ship as if it was a rollercoaster on a drop. Chirithy managed to make it through with only a yelp, hanging by the blond locks on Ventus’s head.

As weird as it is, however, it didn’t seem to be so bad. When they crashed along with the ship, Ventus’s eyesight blurred into white—which definitely sounded horrible; but he wasn’t hurt anywhere or anything. In fact, he feels like he just woke up fresh out of the comfort of a bed as if this whole mission with Vanitas was just a nightmare.

And why did his back feel so soft?

The keyblade wielder hastily opened his eyes, a pair of bright green immediately scanning his surroundings. He noticed that he was in a bedroom...oh no, did they crash the Gummi Ship right smack in the middle of someone’s roof?!

“VANITAS! You asshole!” He calls out, getting up and angrily patting dirt off of his clothes. “Wait ‘til I get my hands on you, you piece of shit!”

Ventus gets on his familiar battle stance. If that wretched _brat_ of an other half of his thinks he wasn’t serious about hitting his sorry face back into the sun’s ass and back, then Vanitas had a whole storm coming, and it was coming fast. Fueled by his anger, Ventus summons Wayward Wind.

Or at least— _tries_ to.

“What the heck?” The boy curses. He reaches his arm out again and again, and by the sixth attempt, he begins to panic. Why couldn’t he summon his keyblade?!

“Come on! Seriously?!”

His hands fall dramatically by his sides as Ventus sighs. The blond boy began to look around again, and stopped as he saw the long hair scattered all over the room he was in. Was this...Rapunzel’s hair? And tower?

 _No, that can’t be right._ His thoughts say to him. The last time the guardians had a sleepover together, he remembered Sora telling a story of how Rapunzel’s hair was cut short during his adventure seeking the Power of Waking.

So if he’s the only person in this room—not to mention the only _blond_ one too…

Ventus inhales sharply at the realization. He reaches out for his back, and indeed does he find flowing locks of golden hair—and it dawns on him that his hair has grown up to 70 feet long in an instant. The boy’s signature spikes still rest on the crown of his head, compared to Rapunzel herself, his hair was an absolute _mess_.

Aqua’s earlier words rung repeatedly in his ears, deafening him despite it only coming from his memories before the crash. “No, no, no,” He panics, trying to take deep, steady breaths to settle down but he just can’t seem to find it in himself to relax.

“HOW COME I’M RAPUNZEL?!” Ventus shrieks. “And I don’t even get to keep my keyblade?!”

He paces back and forth in the room, hair trailing behind him. Ventus stops when he sees a mirror, and there he was granted the opportunity to study his new get-up.

He still had the same face, with his light freckles and green eye contacts on. Ventus’s hair was a _disaster_ , not only did he get to keep his hair spikes, the spikes extended all the way to the sides of the end of his hair too. He didn’t get Rapunzel’s straight, flawless hair—he got his own bird’s nest. 

And as if it was the cherry on top to his mortification: Ventus was wearing a light, lavender-colored silk dress.

The poor boy couldn’t help but let out a deafening scream.

He scurried over to exit the bedroom he woke up in, and was about to run down the flight of stairs, but he felt a stretch in his scalp. Ah, great. His hair was stuck.

This is _clearly_ gonna be one of the longest missions he’d ever partook in since Xehanort, and the blond could only groan loudly and tear up at the thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve wanted to write a Tangled AU for these two for so long, but I was also itching for a Post KH3 fic—and so I came up with this. :D The VanVen tag definitely needed some watering. Also: this entire fic is written purely for fun!! 
> 
> If you wanna be friends on Twitter please don’t hesitate to DM me!: @vnaitas


	2. Chapter 2

It was right then and there when Ventus decided that whoever said fairytale princesses always have it easy was utterly wrong. He would have preferred having to go through fighting Vanitas in his heart exactly like how they did a decade ago, than the treacherous deed of getting his hair safely out of the bedroom without his scalp getting ripped off of his head for about two hours.

“Great!” The tired blond says with faux enthusiasm. “Now it’s time to brush my newly acquired length of 70-feet of hair which I _totally_ asked for!” He finds it quite stupid how he’s throwing sarcastic comments as he carried what he could of his hair down the stairs of the tower. To whom was he even directing his anger at? Vanitas? Definitely. The World Order? After turning him into Rapunzel—maybe so.

It took Ventus another hour and a half to brush and neaten out his hair. It was an absolute pain in the ass, he thinks to himself, and that was an understatement. He went from glaring at his own reflection as he managed along the locks flowing out up to his waist; to hanging upside-down from debris in the upper part of the tower as he brushed the dangling tips.

“Now what am I supposed to do?” Ventus groans. “Sing and do chores?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Woah!” Startled by the voice coming from below him, Ventus began to wobble on the debris he was sitting on and almost lost balance. “Who said that?!”

“Right here, Ven!”

The bright green of his gaze averted down, and from there he sees his Chirithy jumping up and down while waving its little arms to catch his attention. “Chirithy!” The boy cries out, relief of seeing a familiar face other than a certain raven-haired brat washing over him.

Ventus clumsily makes his way back down, and when his feet touch the floor, he immediately rushes to the little creature to give it a hug. “I’m glad you’re here!”

“Is Vanitas here?” Chirithy asks, and the second it was done speaking, Ventus’s soft features sported a frown.

“Oh, he better not be,” He answers. “If I see even a single strand of that bastard’s hair, I might actually kill him.”

Chirithy sighs and takes that as a no. It wasn’t the least bit worried at all; for it knew that killing Vanitas would be the last thing on the list that Ventus would do—if it was even included in the list in the first place.

“By the way, were you serious? Singing...and doing chores?” The blond asks worriedly as he settles Chirithy back down on the floor. 

“Pretty sure it’s what Rapunzel does on a daily basis.” The creature nods with a teasing tone. “This tower _is_ looking pretty dusty.”

Ventus studies his surroundings, gaze focusing on the broom in the corner. With a heavy sigh, he makes his way over to it. “Why couldn’t I have been Sleeping Beauty or something?”

“You had your turn being Sleeping Beauty, Ven.” Chirithy reminds him. “For a decade.”

“Right…” The boy slumps in an ugly posture, before finally grabbing the broom. “‘Kay, time to do some chores because this is _definitely_ how I wanted my day to go by.”

“I’ll try to help you.” Chirithy says, running up the stairs to look for other cleaning supplies.

He watched his little friend until Chirithy’s figure disappeared once it entered the bedroom. Ventus then made his way to the middle of the first floor with a grunt of determination.

He looked at the grandfather clock, and he was glad to see that the clock was working perfectly well. Ventus took a deep breath, and began to work.

“ _7 AM_ _, the usual morning line-up,_ ” Ventus sings, though quietly to himself. With how much dust that came with a single swipe of the broom, Ventus knows that he’s in for a _lot_ of cleaning.

“ _Start on the chores and sweep ‘til the floor’s all clean,_ ” He sweeps with haste in his movements, wanting everything to get done already. As he moved across the room sweeping the dust on the floor, he bumped into a table which held a bunch of metal pots. Ventus cringes at the dust it had on it too. “ _Polish and wax_ ,” He notes to himself, still keeping the tune of his little song.

“Ven! Looks like you’ve got a lot of work to do!” Chirithy calls out, and when Ventus looks up at the stairs where his friend was standing to shoot a look of confusion, piles of dirty clothes were suddenly dropped on top of his head. 

He lets out a ‘tsk’ out of frustration. “ _Do laundry, and mop and shine-up_ …”

That would have to wait though. He hasn’t even finished sweeping the floor yet as his hair was getting in the way and proved to be bothersome. “ _Sweep again, and by then, it’s like_ …” The boy trails off on his words as he spared another glance at the clock. “ _7:15…_ ” 

“Chirithy, this is stupid,” Ventus calls out from downstairs. “This is gonna take forever!”

“We really don’t have a choice,” His friend answers. “It’s how the story goes.”

Ventus whines, feeling helpless. “Stupid whatever-issue-there-is-with-the-worlds.”

-

It took about a whopping five hours before Ventus and Chirithy managed to finish whatever chore that they could do. As of now, Ventus is sprawled across the comfortable mattress face-first in the bedroom, with muffled groaning and complaints escaping his mouth from time to time. The light from outside told him that it was already noon. 

“Ventus!” Chirithy barged inside of the room. “Someone’s inside the tower!”

He didn’t even know why he was ecstatic at the news in the first place; but pretty soon Ventus found himself immediately rushing out of the bedroom and sliding down the handle of the stairs as running would only slow him down. _Finally,_ he thinks to himself. _The story’s finally progressing. This nightmare will be over before I know it!_

Chirithy stayed inside the bedroom, though. So Ventus was left alone and wasn’t able to ask the little creature as to why the main floor was empty. He remained cautious, and quickly made his way to the kitchen without a single sound. 

He hears some shifting, and Ventus feels his breath hitch. Picking up the black frying pan and holding it backwards like how he used to wield Wayward Wind, Ventus makes his way to where the shuffling was coming from.

The stranger wasn’t facing him, but from what Ventus can make out, he had his dark hair tied in a really short pony-tail. His clothes looked like that of a commoner’s. _Was this supposed to be the villain of my story?_ Ventus thinks. He truly didn’t know; perhaps he really should have listened to Sora retelling Rapunzel’s story back at their sleepover.

When the stranger turns around to finally face him, Ventus screams and hits his head. Real fucking hard. He whipped the frying pan as if it was a keyblade and Ventus was pretty sure the least the stranger got from that hit was a concussion.

The figure drops, and Ventus’s expression morphs in horror. 

“VANITAS?!” The blond yells, dropping down to the floor to hold the other’s body, frying pan forgotten. “Shit, wake up! I didn’t mean it, you asshole!” Ventus shakes the now unconscious boy in his arms, and from there he panics. If he had his keyblade with him, he could give Vanitas a little Cura, but that wasn’t the case.

“Ventus! Let down your hair!”

 _Great. Perfect timing._ Another voice called out from outside, and it sounded soft and feminine yet demanding at the same time. Sure, he may not know the minor details of Rapunzel’s story, but Ventus at least knows that his job here was to use his hair as a tower elevator.

Ventus took a deep breath and decided to focus on the boy he was unnecessarily cradling in his arms in a dramatic manner. It wasn’t as if Vanitas was _dead_ , his Dark half was definitely stronger than that. He just couldn’t help but worry since his strike from earlier seemed to be stronger than how he would usually hit the other.

“Ventus, darling!” The voice calls out for him again. “Hurry up and give your poor mother a lift, now would you? Unless you’re planning on leaving me out here to die?”

Well, that was unsettling.

The voice laughs. “I’m just teasing you dear! But do make haste!”

Still unsettling.

Not like Ventus had any choice, though. He picks up Vanitas’s body, and his pair of green eyes stopped to look at the closet in the corner. _I’_ _m sorry, Vani._ Ventus thinks to himself. _Take this as revenge for crashing us here in the first place. You idiot._

“VENTUS!!!” The shrill voice from outside shrieked in demand, and Ventus cringes. 

“Coming, mother!” He says through gritted teeth. Calling someone you aren’t even familiar with ‘mother’ was quite...weird.

He practically threw Vanitas inside the closet, and he was lucky enough that the boy fit perfectly that he didn’t need the extra effort to lock it with a chair or anything. Ventus rushed to the window and was even close to slipping at one point. He locks his hair up the hook and throws the entire heap of blond down.

Ventus felt the weight of his supposed mother latch onto his hair, and he began to pull her up.

“Welcome home, mother. Sorry I took so long.”

Much to his horror, the figure of his ‘mother’ took down her hood to reveal a familiar face. “You’re gonna make me die of old age with how long it took for you to let down your hair.”

Ventus’s eyes widened as much as they could to his shock. “K-Kairi?”

“I told you, darling, I absolutely hate it when you mumble.” The red-haired girl scoffed as she made her way to Ventus and began to play with his hair. “Speak up.”

Well, this was certainly a sight to see. The normal, _real_ Kairi would have greeted him with a hug and a friendly kiss on the cheek—so hearing her scoff at him felt like it came from a whole ‘nother world.

“Nothing, nevermind. What have you got there in your basket, mother?”

As if her mood turned 180 degrees, Kairi—or his mother, rather—smiled sweetly at him. “Guess what, my dear Ventus? I’m making Hazelnut soup for dinner! Surprise!”

Now this Kairi was more like it. Despite flashing her a bright smile in response, Ventus still knew that deep down, this was most definitely _not_ the Kairi he knew and was friends with. He could feel it in his heart and he had absolutely no connections with this person at all. He had to get out of here somehow.

 _Come on, Ven! Think, think, think!_ Ventus furrows his eyebrows. _Did Sora say anything about how Rapunzel escaped?_

And as if the real Sora gave his heart a hint, it clicked. “Mother, I have something to talk to you about.”

“Can that wait, dear?” His mother tells him as she looks at her reflection in the same body mirror that Ventus was staring at earlier. “Take two chairs. I’m gonna brush your hair for you. You know the drill.”

He complied, though he was also confused as he didn’t know what the ‘drill’ was. The blond didn’t know anything about this part of the story at all, but for some reason his heart and body knew what he was doing. 

When they were both sitting down with his mother holding a brush in her hand, Ventus began to sing a song that he didn’t even know he _knew_.

Ventus was never a fan of his own singing voice, but the song was quite beautiful. Perhaps the original Rapunzel from this world was connected to his heart too, after all. His hair glowed as he sung, and as he finished the song and looked up at his mother, Ventus almost choked.

Kairi’s face was long gone, and now _Naminé_ was the one sitting in front of him. Blonde hair and everything! “Thank you, dear,” The woman says. “You keep me young.”

“What…oh, uh, you’re welcome, mother.”

“Alright,” Naminé— _or whoever the heck this woman is because this is getting real creepy_ —stands up from her chair, and makes her way over to Ventus to give him a hug. “Now, you were saying, darling?”

“Huh?”

“You had something to tell me, Ventus?” 

“Ah, right,” _Here goes nothing._ “Mother...when will you let me out of the tower?”

A deafening silence follows, and Ventus feels his mother’s hug loosen around him. “This again? Are you serious, Ventus? Haven’t we talked about this before?” The woman finally replies, and the boy couldn’t help but notice the slight venom in her voice.

“Is this about the stars again?”

Ventus’s ears perked up at the mention. “Stars?”

“Dear, I’m your mother yet it seems like your memory is worse than mine,” Naminé’s figure snickers at him. “Your birthday tomorrow, remember? And the stars that appear every year on your birthday that you’re so obsessed with?”

Something within Ventus’s heart told him that those stars were exactly what he should head towards. _Well, Sora did like to say something about hearts being our guiding keys._

“Yes, mother. I want to see them tomorrow.” Ventus pleads, a hint of desperation in his voice. He knew that he would never complete the story if he never saw those stars. _Come on, fake Kairi-Naminé! Let me out of here!_

“Ventus,” Blue eyes stared into him as a warning, but it didn’t hold any love or worry for him at all. “What did I say about going to the outside world?”

“But mother—”

“ _Ventus._ ”

“Come on, it’s only for my birthd—”

“ _SILENCE!! YOU ARE TO NEVER LEAVE THIS TOWER, EVER!”_

Ventus’s eyes felt like they widened big enough to pop out of their sockets. He began to shake in fear; neither Naminé nor Kairi ever talked to him or raised their voices at him like that. Or anyone, for that matter. Hell, not even Master Xehanort reached that level with him. 

“Great,” The short woman sighs exasperatedly. “Now _I’m_ the bad guy.”

“Mother—”

“Save it for later, dear.” She groans as she picks up her basket and puts up her hood once again. “Is there anything else you’d like for your birthday tomorrow?”

“Just...just new paint,” Ventus answers, though quietly since he was still shocked at his supposed mother’s outburst. He had absolutely no clue as to how that came out of his mouth, either. Ventus doesn’t even know _how_ to paint, but it felt as if his heart would leap out of his chest if he didn’t answer that specifically. “The red and green ones stored in seashells.”

The woman sporting Naminé’s face looked at him in surprise. “Honey, those ones are very difficult to get. Your dear mother wouldn’t be able to celebrate with you as the trip will take three days’ time.”

“It’s fine, mother. I can take care of myself here.” Ventus forces himself to smile. “I’m....sorry about earlier.”

Eerily, the woman flashes the exact same smile that the _real_ Naminé would have given him. “Don’t mind it, darling. I’m sorry too. I’ll be back before you know it and we could celebrate with the Hazelnut soup I promised.”

“Alright, mother,” Ventus replies, trying his best to lighten up the tone of his voice. “I’ll give you a lift down.”

Ventus rushed back towards the window, eager to finally get this woman pretending to be his friend—or was it his friend pretending to be this woman? He didn’t care, he just wanted this fake mother figure of his out of his sight as soon as possible.

The blond gazes down at the woman who looked exactly like Naminé as she set foot on the ground. Ventus watches her, waving at her for the short moment that she looks back, until her cloaked figure can no longer be seen.

“Finally!” Ventus cheered as he retreated back into the tower.

Wanting to waste no more time, Ventus ran straight in front of the closet. He opened it clumsily, as a large _bang_ came from the two doors. There he sees Vanitas; and the sight of his other half who was still unconscious from their earlier encounter made Ventus want to double over his stomach.

“Time to wake you up for the thousandth time today, Vani.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter! Let me know your thoughts, please! <3
> 
> Twitter: @vnaitas


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